In order to provide animal disease data as a research resource, an abstract of clinical findings resulting from each patient discharge at participating institutions is sent to Veterinary Medical Data Program central processing. Abstracts are edited, reports are prepared for participants and information is stored for us in current and future epidemiologic study. The data bank, which included information on 1.6 million patients through December 1976, is often used as a reference source by scientists at NCI and elsewhere. This activity was transferred to a cooperative composed of participating colleges as of July 1, 1977.